DAYANAND MEDICAL COLLEGE & HOSPITAL, LUDHIANA    11.01.2013

                                                            Doc from USA delivered a lecture on ‘Pain Management

Dr Brinder Vij, Asssociate Professor in the Department of Neurological Center for Pain from Cleaveland Clinics, USA today delivered a lecture on the topic ‘Pain: A symptom or Disease’ The lecture was well attended by the faculty,interns, PG residents and MBBS students.

In his lecture, Dr Vij said that Pain, whether you realize it or not, may be one of the best friends you will ever have. For it is a signal to the brain that a problem exists somewhere in the body or that the body is being injured in some way. People with pain certainly have a personal, internal experience of pain. Various ultramodern techniques and equipments are available in present times to determine the cause of pain. Pain that is persistent, severe, continuous, or destroys the will to live should not be ignored as a psychological problem but needs proper diagnosis. 

A real problem in the appropriate diagnosis of painful conditions lies in the education of doctors and other health care workers. Pain has traditionally been treated as a symptom, which is appropriate in terms of acute injury or medical disease. But in cases, when injury has healed or the disease has subsided, the individuals might be left with chronic pain, which needs to be treated medically. 

Dr Vij expressed that Depression resulting from severe, chronic pain is probably the most common psychological problem in pain patients and it affects their performance at workplace and also hampers their social interaction and physical activity. 

The speaker suggested that good treatment planning for treating pain can only be based on accurate diagnosis. He stressed that chronic pain is a disease and for its successful management, requires the recognition of a source and therefore, diagnosis. In nutshell, good treatment planning can only be based on accurate diagnosis.